It's funny how people come in and out of your life. In 1983 I got offered a gig on the island of Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands. What 25 year-old could resist the offer of a summer in Hawaii? 2 months of steady work in a club right on the beach. Pretty cool.
As fate would have it, on the other side of the very small island they were filming the movie, "Uncommon Valor" with Gene Hackman. One of the cast members was a young, unknown guy by the name of Buddy Swayze. His name was Patrick, but he insisted I call him Buddy - that's what his friends called him. This was a year before Dirty Dancing and six years before Ghost.
He would come into the club, listen to band and hang out with us. After about a week, he invited us to the set. So by day we hung out with Buddy - either on the set or at the beach, body surfing and generally enjoying Hawaii. By night, we would play at the bar while he hung out and had a few beers.
I specifically remember one day on the beach - just him and me. We sat for a couple of hours just talking about what we were going to do with our lives. He was going to be a movie star and I was going to be a rock star, (at least one of us made it). We talked about raising families, religion, politics, where we'd been and where we were going - or at least thought we were going.
I spent the better part of two months hanging out with him. It felt like we would be friends for a long time. We exchanged numbers and promised that we'd get together back in LA and raise some hell. But life doesn't work that way. We both left the island and I didn't see him again for several years. When I did run into him, we were both very different people. Just a handshake and a "nice to see you." No sign that we had been pretty good friends - at least for two months.
I have often thought about how life is like a series of small windows opening and closing. Almost like riding on a train. You look out the window at a scene so beautiful, you swear to remember every detail - then it's gone. Just a faint memory that almost feels like it never happened at all. But it did happen - even if only for a moment.
I guess the idea is to string enough of these windows together to make a life for yourself. I have a pretty good life and Patrick Swayze was a small part of it.
I'll miss ya, Buddy.